I have seen the freest and best educated… in the happiest circumstances the world can afford; yet it seemed that a cloud hung on their brow and they appeared serious and almost sad even in their pleasures (because they) never stop thinking of the good things they have not got. Alexis de Tocqueville[1] Among the various smaller and larger... Read more
It’s true. I’m pretty relentlessly a fan of the scientific method as it has evolved over the years. I really like what can be found in double blind testing. Certainly by testing claims about what presents, decisions can be made that are vastly more likely to be useful than not. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb saying this. Anything... Read more
I had a dream the other night. I was walking down the street and past a bum sitting on the street. I’m guessing a bum. Lots of reasons for lots of people to be sitting on the street. He seemed to be nodding off, probably drunk. Maybe. If I didn’t note, hard to say about such things. Hard to say about things… As I walked by I thought I heard him say “It’s all connected.” Or, maybe the voice... Read more
(A few years back I shared a retelling of case two in the Wumenguan, the Gateless Gate. It turns on the master Baizhang’s encounter with a fox. I’ve polished it a bit, and here’s the new and improved version, “The Song of Beyond Measure…) Once upon a time, long ago and far away, there was a nun. She was... Read more
So, what is spirituality, anyway? Philip Sheldrake is generally considered among the foremost academics studying the subject. He specializes in Christian spirituality. But out of his years of study has offered some insights into what spirituality seems to be as a current within religions writ large. It is a current, a strand, an aspect. As the spiritual but not... Read more
Looking the precept up simply as a translation from the Bramajala Sutra from which our Soto Zen sixteen precepts come, we get something pretty straight forward: “Not to be stingy, or encourage others to do so.” Looking to versions offered by contemporary western Zen teachers we find a variety of angles. Perhaps with a bit more nuance than we might assume. First, from Robert Aitken, the root teacher of our community: “I take up the way of not... Read more
Robert Ingersoll died on this day, the 21st of July, 1899. Perhaps an unusual figure to note on the anniversary of his death, which is more commonly done in religious circles. Death being a marker for winning the victory and obtaining one’s reward. Some might sneer, suggesting his reward was hell-fire. But that’s not what I think. I see a life complete. And his was one of integrity and intelligence, which seemed to grow ever deeper... Read more
Beloved, we have existed within you for all of our days. Before the earth was formed and the mountains arose, before stars and dreams, before any beginnings and all the endings, it is holy. You are holy. Even in the midst of our worst, you are there. And always you whisper a call to return. A thousand years for you are no more than yesterday, like a... Read more
I’ve been working on a brief reflection to mark my seventy-fifth birthday tomorrow. After a ton of writing, I’ve done three quarters of a ton of cutting. This I couldn’t just leave as scattered pixels into the universe. A bit of a reading list, my core spiritual texts. Maybe they’ll be of some use to you. And in that spirit I offer this list up. For me the... Read more
It is good to sing praise to you, my heart. To give thanks for the blessings of life, To notice love coursing through my body in the morning And faithfulness through the night. I hear our human voices as music, And silence as melody. I delight in your world; You make my body sing with joy. How great is your goodness. How unfathomable your deep currents, Not seen by eyes Not grasped by mind Everything united Everything touching. ... Read more
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